Whispers in the Rain
by AkitaFallow
Summary: She’d never thought of him as others had seen him; he was never the Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of the wizarding world, to her. No. To her, he was just Harry, a confused boy forced to fight his demons on his own. Char death, AU final battle, oneshot.


_Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..._

The whispering silence of the rain was the only sound to be heard in the darkness. Nothing stirred around her as she walked through what had once been a battlefield.

A battlefield that was now a gravesite.

She carefully stepped over a fallen figure. They looked so peaceful, eyes closed, rain falling lightly on their faces.

It laid a lie to the fight that had ended only hours ago.

Her feet carried her away from the relative safety of her home, the great castle looming behind her. Hogwarts was nothing more than an empty shell, now.

Everyone was gone.

_But not quite everyone,_ she told herself firmly. _Not quite…_

The Forbidden Forest's dark line of trees rose up to meet her as she stepped under their limited protection from the rain. It seeped into her hair and drenched her cloak, but she didn't feel it.

The path wasn't hard to find. It looked like it'd been ripped from the forest floor. She stepped onto it and continued walking.

The light of the moon lit the clearing as she reached it. Figures were scattered throughout it, thrown to the ground as if by a great force. On the north end was a large, clear patch of ground.

A small figure lay there.

Her breath caught in her throat, and she stepped gingerly over the prone figures towards it. Her wand was clenched tightly in her hand as she leaned over the black-cloaked figure.

She caught sight of ruffled black hair and a too-pale face.

Dropping to her knees, she gently, ever so gently, rolled the figure over onto its back.

"H…Harry?" she whispered, afraid she was too late.

His eyelids flickered, and clouded green eyes opened to meet hers.

"'Mione?" It came out as barely more than a breath.

She smiled slightly. "Hey. You did it."

The pained green eyes closed. "Yeah. Guess I did."

Hermione felt something warm and wet on her right hand. She lifted it to see it coated with a dark red liquid that the rain was quickly washing away.

He was covered in blood.

She took a deep breath and went to stand.

A feeble hand grasped the hem of her cloak.

"'Mione? Where're y'going?" Harry slurred slightly, trying but failing to raise his voice.

Hermione managed to stifle the slight sob she felt coming up her throat. "To get help." She knew his wounds were beyond her ability to heal. Harry needed professional healers.

Harry's eyes opened slightly. "No. Stay."

A raindrop landed on her nose, and Hermione anxiously brushed it off. "Harry, you need—"

She stopped at the slight shake of his head, barely more than a twitch. "Please…" The word was like the sigh of a breeze.

Hermione's legs shook as she nodded slowly. "Okay."

She knew it was too late, anyway.

The ground was cold and wet as she sat, but she ignored it. She pulled Harry's shoulders onto her lap and cradled his head, trying to make it as comfortable for him as possible. His eyes had closed again, but his chest rose and fell slowly. She grabbed one of his hands.

"Harry?"

Dull green eyes opened a slit and looked into her face.

"D'you remember last time we were here? With Ron and Luna and Ginny and Neville? Practicing the hexes and things you wanted them to learn before… before everything?"

The corner of Harry's mouth lifted as his eyes closed again.

"Ron kept aiming at Ginny and missing. Of course, Ginny was too fast for him. And Neville… just when we thought he'd had it, he'd go and blow up a tree or something." A quiet, slightly strangled chuckle escaped her mouth. "Of course, Luna got it right away all the time, and just stared into space…"

She looked down at Harry's face, where a small smile was pulling at his mouth.

"You know, when we get out of here, I have to bring you to a Muggle movie theatre. You wouldn't believe the stuff they come up with about magic sometimes. I think you'd enjoy it." Her vision was becoming suspiciously blurry. She shivered as the rain continued to fall on the back of her head.

"There're so many other things we have to see together. I heard that in Muggle France, there's some of the best food you can buy… And I heard the rest of Europe's always got great sights to see. There's the Leaning Tower of Pisa—a big Muggle building that leans to one side, isn't that silly?—and the pyramids in Egypt. They were built completely without magical help, and they're _gigantic_. Then there're sphinxes—enormous stone ones, not live ones like we have—and—"

She continued to describe as many Muggle sights as she could as she looked down into Harry's face once more. The face of her best friend. She'd never thought of him as others had seen him; he was never Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of the wizarding world and final defeater of Voldemort, to her. No. To her, he was just Harry, a confused boy thrust into situations beyond his control and forced to fight his demons on his own. Someone who had always needed her to help him through the messes he couldn't seem to avoid on his own.

And now she was offering the one last service she could.

Her voice hitched slightly as she spoke. A raindrop rolled down her cheek. Or was it a tear? She couldn't really tell.

Harry's eyes slowly opened when her voice was broken by a sob. His hand, shaking slightly, rose to touch her face, then fell back down as if he were exhausted by that simple movement. "'Mione?"

Hermione sniffled.

"'m sorry," he whispered.

She shook her head. "No. I-I'm the one who's sorry. I'm just a big cry baby… s'not your fault…"

A wheeze that had to be a chuckle escaped Harry's mouth. "Always blaming yourself…"

Hermione sniffled again, then saw that Harry's eyes were once more closed. She looked up at the black sky, and the rain fell on her face.

The hand in hers squeezed slightly. "What were you saying about the Taj Mahal…?" His voice was so quiet, so weak. She stifled another sob and forced herself to continue her descriptions of all the world's most wonderful places.

Places he'd never get to see.

Minutes passed. The rain got heavier.

"—and they've got this enormous amusement park there. It's a Muggle thing, where they strap you into these car things that ride on rails, and you flip upside down and drop almost straight down, all going almost as fast as your Firebolt. I think you'd really enjoy that…"

So absorbed was she that she almost didn't notice when he pulled in one deep breath, then let it out slowly.

She stopped speaking as he didn't breathe in again.

"Harry?"

His hand was limp in hers.

Hermione felt the tears she'd been fighting so hard against rise up in her throat. A soft keening escaped her mouth, broken by a sharp sob. The rain pattered down on Harry's pale, unmoving face, and she felt her heart squeeze painfully. She wrapped her arms around the body of her best friend and hugged him to her, the tears coursing freely down her face now.

"…I'm sorry."

Her keening rose to join the sound of the rain, merely a whisper amid the quiet susurrus of the raindrops.

_**Fin.**_

**_Review?_**


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